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national memory and the arts in dunbar’s war poetry 27 fight” has been, according to what “the Present teaches, / but in vain!”50 These closing words have been interpreted as an expression of complete surrender to despair and disappointment. However, the context of all of Dunbar’s poems on war encourages a different reading. While the final lines of the octet outline the speaker’s perspective on Gould and his black soldiers’ achievement, albeit as the culmination of wonder at the contrast between Gould’s social background and his willingness to fight for the downtrodden, the sestet depicts a currently visible predicament as well as a currently prevalent view of history. Segregation , lynchings, and unconstitutional laws and behaviors bespeak the lack of practical consequences of Gould’s sacrifice, but they cannot invalidate the spiritual dimension described in the sestet. At the same time, the appositional remark—“the Present teaches”—may also be read as a reflection of the fact that the American public ignores what the fate of the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Infantry should have taught them. “Robert Gould Shaw” was published in the 1903 volume Lyrics of Love and Laughter, six years after the dedication of SaintGaudens ’s sculpture in honor of Shaw and his regiment. The poem implies that this site of national memory in Boston is not consistent with the current predicament of African Americans. Whereas official public and national memory appears to honor black soldiers and their commander, the descendants of these very soldiers do not live in equality and harmony. Again, celebrating heroes only makes sense if these heroes’ values are practiced. Dunbar shows in his poetry that individuals sacrificed their lives in the defense of laudable eternal principles. Despite the sacrifices of the famous and the unknown, human frailty has prevented the realization of the high ideals fought for. Possible remedies for a selective and faulty national historiography and art are remembering the ideals, the struggle, and its outcome and assessing the present by the original high standards developed in the American revolutionary era and based on both Enlightenment and Christian thought. F Dunbar’s war poetry includes “The Conquerors: The Black Troops in Cuba,” a lyrical reflection on the Spanish-American War similar to his depictions of African American soldiers in the Civil War and of Black Samson of Brandywine . In “The Conquerors,” found in Lyrics of the Hearthside (1899), the persona describes the sight-inhibiting battle conditions, which, however, do not impede general awareness of the soldiers’ military achievements. Their fame is comparable, for instance, to that of “Lincoln,” metaphorically made audible: “Bravely you spoke through the battle cloud heavy and dun. / Tossed though the speech toward the mist-hidden sun, / The world heard.”51 Conventional 28 nassim W. balestrini contrasts between night and day, darkness and light, hell and heaven again— as in some of the Civil War poems—indicate a type of progress linked to the growing awareness of the soldiers’ courage (see second stanza). But the persona then returns to sound and voices, particularly to the voice of “Truth.” This voice will, once “fear” has been overcome, be heard “Loud and clear” above “noises of trade and the turbulent hum” and above the sound of “the militant drum.”52 Thus, just as clear vision must follow distorted vision, the sound of truth will drown out the hubbub of other noises. The fourth and final stanza explains these metaphorical perceptions as expressions of the nation’s ability to appreciate the African American troops for more than just their military feats: “Then on the cheek of the honester nation that grows, / All for their love of you, not for your woes, / There shall lie / Tears that shall be to your souls as the dew to the rose; / Afterward thanks, that the present yet knows / Not to ply!”53 This stanza features elements found in the majority of Dunbar’s war poems. First, the speaker’s reference to “the honester nation” suggests the necessity to develop a higher degree of truthfulness. Second, appreciating black troops not because of their horrific experiences but because of genuine love lends such appreciation a spiritual dimension rather than merely reflecting awe at their courage and gore. Third, the symbolic rose indicates the potential beauty that may grow out of something as destructive and ugly as war. Fourth, the speaker knows that such gratitude is not yet granted and that—he hopes—it will evolve over time. As in “Robert Gould Shaw,” Dunbar indicts contemporary society...

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